LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The Biola Eagles made an excellent first impression during their first season in the PacWest, earning a 21-19 record in conference play and finishing just behind three teams that qualified for the NCAA West Regional.

Six Eagles were named all-conference players on Wednesday after Biola exceeded the expectation of its eighth-place selection in the PacWest preseason poll. All of the top-four teams in the PacWest had six all-conference selections or more.

Seniors Daniel Jang and Colton Worthington were selected to the All-PacWest first team as the conference's best utility player and reliever, respectively. Micah Beyer, Ryan Gallegos, Jerron Largusa and Jacob Portaro all received their first all-conference honors and appeared on the second team.

Jang earned the first all-conference of his career award after finished as the PacWest's leader in saves with 13. He led all NCAA Division II pitchers in saves for the majority of the 2018 season and registered a scoreless appearance of one inning or more against every conference opponent. Jang also finished the regular season with 15-straight scoreless outings and only allowed one run, three extra-base hits (three doubles, zero triples, zero homeruns), and five walks in 21.1 innings of work.

Worthington qualified for the utility player designation after starting 10 games as outfielder but spent the majority of his time as the Eagles' first baseman. Worthington collected an even 60 hits and a .330 batting average during his first season in the PacWest, starting 49 of the Eagles 50 games in the three-spot in the order. After hitting .384 with 10 extra-base hits and 20 RBI's during the first 20 games of PacWest play, Worthington finished second in the PWC with 51 runs scored and top-10 in RBI's with 42 and walks with 27. He led the Eagles with 18 multi-hit games and had nine multi-RBI games, the biggest of which came on March 30 when he hit a eighth inning grand slam against Point Loma to turn an 8-6 deficit into a 10-8 lead.

Micah Beyer headlined Biola's second team recognitions after he ably carried the mantle of being the Eagles' ace in the starting rotation. Beyer was a two-time PacWest Pitcher of the Week and threw seven innings or more in all eight of his starts from February 16 to April 13. He finished with six wins, 78.1 innings pitched and was in the top-two among conference pitchers in strikeouts (95). Beyer also turned in five starts with 10 strikeouts or more and finished the season with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5-to-1.

Gallegos easily distinguished himself as the best PacWest freshman on offense after earning his way onto the Eagles roster just before the season. He was Freshman of the Week twice and earned second-team DH honors after leading the Eagles over the last 20 games in batting average (.415), on-base percentage (.513), slugging (.723), hits (27), doubles (5), homeruns (5), and RBI (25). He finishing third in the conference in RBI with 53, seventh in the PacWest in doubles (13) and eighth in batting average (.361). Lastly, Gallegos had 16 multi-hit games, including a 5-for-6 day against Concordia on May 8, 18 multi-RBI games, and he did not make an error in 13 chances as an outfielder.  

Largusa was tabbed as the best junior outfielder in the PacWest after he finished as Biola's leading hitter this season, pacing the Eagles with a .366 batting average, .454 on-base percentage, and 64 hits. After hitting .398 with 23 RBI's through the Eagles' first 25 games, Largusa finished third in the PacWest with 11 stolen bases, fourth in hits and seventh in the conference with his .366 batting average. He was one of just two outfielders in the PacWest that is listed in the top ten for batting average and on-base percentage and sat just outside the top-10 among all hitters in the conference in runs (39) and RBI's (39).

Finally, Portaro was an anchor at the hot corner for the Eagles all season and was named an All-PacWest third baseman after his 17 extra-base hits place him third among third baseman in the conference. Portaro hit .340 with 18 RBI's and a team-best .493 on-base percentage during the Eagles first 20 games in PacWest play, then finished off his season by reaching base safely in 16-straight contests. He had 11 multi-hit games and seven multi-RBI games, including three contests where he drove in four runs or more.

Biola has to wait a few more days to find out where it will be seeded in the NCCAA World Series that begins May 23. Updates on Biola's seeding will be posted to athletics.biola.edu